The present invention generally relates to wine storage devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for storing and dispensing wine from collapsible, reusable containers.
For many years, wine has remained one of the most popular drinks to accompany a meal, and as such, is made available not only at home, but at a vast number of restaurants. It is therefore important for a restaurant to keep in stock ample quantities of wine to meet the demand of its customers. However, as wine has historically been stored within glass 750-mL bottles, not only are there increased shipping costs associated with the use of glass bottles, but stocking a restaurant with such wine requires certain space requirements. Alternatively, certain types of wine have been made available by means of portable fluid containers, for example flexible 3- to 10-liter bladders of wine contained within a cardboard box, sometimes referred to as “wine-in-a-box” or simply “box wine”. While such containers cut down on shipping costs, there are still storage considerations to take into account, as well as other inherent setbacks. For instance, as the box itself must be placed within a refrigeration unit to keep the wine chilled, the refrigeration space required for the box must be considered. Further, and regardless if a bottle or portable fluid bladder is used, once opened, the shelf-life of the wine decreases rapidly due to oxidation. While bottles of wine typically have to be consumed within a day or so, “wine-in-a-box” products currently available typically last only about a week. More importantly, though, as wine is considered by many to be a premium product, “wine-in-a-box” does not do well from a marketing standpoint as it has been perceived by the purchasing public to be an inferior product or inferior means of storage as opposed to glass bottles. For this reason alone, many vintners have avoided providing wines in this fashion, preferring instead to stick with glass bottles.
There exist in the art several examples of devices that have attempted to provide a means for storing box wine in an aesthetically pleasing manner. However, limitations exist in such examples as conventional devices have been shown to be quite difficult to change between spent wine bladders and new ones. Recent improvements in the art have made it less difficult to change spent wine bladders. For example, commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 8,596,496 describes a rear-loading wine storage and dispensing device that overcame some of these problems. However, other complications have since risen including ease of installing a support floor for the insert. Another complication that has been known for quite some time is the difficulty in extracting all the wine from these types of inserts without having to physically manipulate the insert or device.
Currently, there exists a need in the art to provide an aesthetically pleasing wine dispensing mechanism for use in conjunction with reusable wine inserts which provides a stable support floor for the inserts and which is not difficult to construct. There also exists a need in the art to provide a wine insert that is capable of dispensing the entirety of its contents without the aid of physical manipulation.